The Texas Aesthetic X

For Lone Star art lovers (whether native or naturalized) with a genuine hankering for great art with genuine “Texas” flair, do we have a show for you – The Tenth Annual Texas Aesthetic at William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art!

Every year for the past decade, Houston’s notable Texas gallery has quietly played host to the state’s most significant annual round-up of contemporary Lone Star painters through its acclaimed Texas Aesthetic series.  Reaves and Foltz are at it again this year, and open The Texas Aesthetic X on Friday, May 6 at their spacious Westheimer location, bringing the city a “main event” art exhibition and showcasing the incredible virtuosity of twenty-three Texas artists.

This annual exhibition constitutes one the city’s most important visual arts encounters with bona fide “Texas” art works, and offers Houstonians their best opportunity to encounter a splendid sampling from all corners of the state, teeming with iconic Texas imagery and undeniable “down-home” narrative.  As always, the selections in the Texas Aesthetic are unusually strong, engaging, carefully curated to coax out the inner-Texan within us all!

For the uninitiated, don’t go to the Texas Aesthetic expecting the Lone Star fare there to be all cowboys and bluebonnets (although you may find a few excellent examples of each).  Part of what the Reaves | Foltz team hopes to achieve in this annual soiree is to illustrate the artistic strength and diversity of subject matter among Texas painters working today.

Thus, while the selections in Texas Aesthetic X are mostly representational and landscape centered, prepare to be amazed as the collection takes you well beyond flower-covered hills and into an expansive tour of wonderfully diversified flora, fauna and folklore of the Lone Star State.

Once again, the Texas Aesthetic features the work of the gallery’s Contemporary Texas Regionalist group, the talented 16-member ensemble of mid-career painters that call the gallery home.  By now, these accomplished artists will be familiar to most fans of Texas art, as they comprise the mainstays of the Reaves | Foltz stable.  Members of this group hale from all over the Lone Star state, and their works may be found among the state’s foremost individual and corporate collections, as well as in the permanent collections of many of the state’s most reputable museums.

The Contemporary Texas Regionalists include:  Randy Bacon (Albany), Mary Baxter (Marfa), David Caton (Utopia), Margie Crisp (Elgin), Keith Davis (Austin), Charles Ford (Houston), Pat Gabriel (Fort Worth), Billy Hassell (Fort Worth), Lee Jamison (Huntsville), Rob Kendrick (Austin), Laura Lewis (Mason), William Montgomery (Elgin), Noe Perez (Corpus Christi), Jeri Salter (Round Rock), Debbie Stevens (Cypress), and William Young (Palestine).

Also back for this year’s Texas Aesthetic are the gallery’s resident water-colorists, Hunter George and Erik Sprohge.  Both George and Sprohge are long-time, award-winning Houston painters.  Their colorful and engaging Texas scenes will be familiar to local audiences, as both artists expertly apply the watercolor medium to produce memorable Texas subject matter.

In addition to gallery regulars, Reaves and Foltz also take advantage of the Texas Aesthetic venue to showcase an array of talented guest artists, and to introduce their work to the Houston community as well.  This year, works will be on view by five guest artists, including: Vera Barnett (Barnett), Fidencio Duran (Austin), Jim Malone (Fort Worth), Robert McCoy (San Antonio), and Craig Mindell (Austin).

The Exhibition runs from May 6 through June 25, with an opening reception on Saturday, May 7, 2016 from 6-8:30pm in which most of the participating artists will be in attendance.

Pictured: Billy Hassell, Powderhorn Ranch, 2015 (detail above, full image below).